South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Not the one to mince words, South African head coach Shukri Conrad said his team’s nine-wicket defeat to New Zealand in the T20 World Cup semifinal here was “not a choke but a walloping”.

Chasing a tricky 170, New Zealand cantered home in 12.5 overs, powered by their openers on Wednesday night in Kolkata. While Finn Allen’s 100 not out off 33 balls was the fastest century in the event’s history, equally explosive was Tim Seifert with a 33-ball 58.

The ouster added to South Africa’s growing list of heartbreaks in ICC world tournaments. The 2024 runners-up had entered the semifinal as the tournament’s only unbeaten side with seven wins on the trot including handing out defeats to New Zealand (group stage) and home favourites India (Super Eights).

“I don’t know if tonight was a choke. I thought it was a bloody walloping,” Conrad said bluntly when the ‘C’ word was brought up given South Africa’s past record of imploding in high-pressure games.

“In order for you to choke, you must have had a sniff in the game. We didn’t have a sniff. In South Africa, we’d say we ‘got moered (violent assault)’,” he added in his inimitable style.

He then used his native Afrikaans to best sum up the defeat.

“Tonight, we got a proper ‘snotklap’ — that’s an Afrikaans word for a real hiding, a smack you don’t see coming. That’s what it felt like,” said Conrad, who had courted controversy during last year’s Test series in India with fiery comments about wanting the Indian team to “grovel”.

The literal meaning of Afrikaans term ‘snotklap’ is “snot smack”, referring to a blow to the face or nose, so severe that it knocks the ‘snot out of the nose.

The New Zealand bowlers set up the contest nicely with Cole McConchie removing Quinton de Kock (10) and Ryan Rickelton (0) in consecutive deliveries in the second over after they won a good toss.

Later, Rachin Ravindra and Matt Henry stifled South Africa in the middle overs as none of their star batters — Aiden Markram (18 off 20), David Miller (6), Dewald Brevis (34) — could swing their bats.

It was Marco Jansen (55 not out; 30 balls) and Tristan Stubbs (29) who lifted their total in the death overs.

“We recovered nicely with Stabo and Marco but I thought New Zealand were excellent. They exploited conditions really well with their spinners up front and we just never got out the block. So, yeah, full marks to them,” Conrad conceded.

“They were a hell of a lot better than us tonight. We just spoke about it, that it seemed like everything went right.”

With their dream run crashing in the semifinal, he said South Africa did everything right but “chose a really crappy time to have a bad night.”

However, he brushed aside suggestions that playing the bulk of their previous matches in Ahmedabad had left them under-prepared for a different venue.

“There’s obviously a lot to be said about playing all our games at Ahmedabad and then not having played anything in some of the other states. But again, that’s no excuse,” he said.

“They strangled us up front, lost wickets, didn’t get any sort of momentum going. And yeah, a hell of a lot didn’t go right tonight. But that was probably enforced because they were so good and they never gave us a sniff.”

Asked how the team would overcome such a big defeat after a dream run in the preliminaries, Conrad quipped, “Hopefully we’ve got a carrier to pick us up to take us home. Look, I mean, the guys will be hurting and they obviously are, but it’s not a hell of a lot. You get judged on World Cups and winning it.”

Despite the crushing defeat, Conrad took pride in his side’s seven-match winning run enroute the semifinals.

“I thought we did some exceptional stuff throughout the tournament. Played some really good cricket. I am incredibly proud of these guys,” he said.

“Not many people gave us a chance of making the semifinals when we left home, given our form before the World Cup. But that’s no consolation right now,” he signed off.

Published – March 05, 2026 01:21 pm IST

South Africa’s captain Aiden Markram with teammates. (PTI Photo)

NEW DELHI: The South African cricket team is in familiar terrain, having reached the semifinals of yet another World Cup. There’s nothing new about this — they’ve reached this stage in an ICC World Cup (T20 and ODI World Cups combined) on eight previous occasions.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Though they won the World Test Championship (WTC) title last year to break the jinx, the South Africans haven’t been able to crack the code just yet in limited-overs World Cups.

They have entered the final only once, where they lost to India in the previous edition of the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean. Their inability to handle pressure in knockout games in big limited-overs tournaments is forever a talking point and have given them the tag of ‘chokers’.When reminded him of that unwarranted tag after his team’s five-wicket win over Zimbabwe in their last Super 8 engagement, South Africa’s head coach Shukri Conrad not only refused to utter the word ‘chokers’ but also took the opportunity to take at a jibe at the ‘cupcake’ commercial aired by the tournament’s official broadcasters before their game against India last week.“As for the ‘C’ word, I think there is another one for it, cupcakes! I thought we kind of enjoyed that,” he said in a tongue-in-cheek manner, referring to the ad — showing a South African choking on a cupcake and then being handed a bottle of water — that was later taken off air.

However, the way his team has been playing, Conrad will know that this tournament presents them with the ideal opportunity to end their search for a world title in the white-ball format.South Africa have shown that they can not only win in clinical fashion but also scramble through. While the victories over bigger teams like India, New Zealand and West Indies were comprehensive, they also managed to pip Afghanistan in a nerve-wracking Super Over and were able to scrape through against Zimbabwe, the two games in which the South Africans were clearly not at their best.“That’s the mark of really good sides. When things get tough, they’re still able to fashion something and eke out the right result. I think there’s that calmness in the side, especially in the batting unit, that whatever the situation, someone will find a way,” said Conrad.While the batsmen have done their part, it’s the performance of the South African pacers on Indian wickets that have been a revelation. “You can only pretty much cut your coat according to your cloth. Something South African cricket has always had is fast bowlers. We’re talking about guys that can bowl 145-plus. What’s going to be important in India is if you can nail a yorker, some change-ups and maybe on wickets that might be a little bit iffy, some good pace can do the trick. It’s kind of worked out for us,” Conrad said.With the batting and bowling units clicking together, South Africa remain the only unbeaten side in the tournament and that makes them favourites going into the semifinal against New Zealand in Kolkata on Wednesday.